Stir-Fried Thai-Style Beef with Chiles and Shallots (MBR)

BEEF AND MARINADE

• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon light brown sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 2 pounds blade steaks, trimmed

STIR-FRY

• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon Asian chili-garlic paste
• 3 medium garlic cloves, minces or pressed through a garlic press (about 1 tablespoon)
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 serrano or jalapeno chiles, halved, seeds and ribs removed, chiles cut crosswise 1/8 inch thick
• 3 medium shallots, quartered lengthwise, and layers separated
• 1/2 cup fresh mint leaves, large leave torn into bite-sized pieces
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves [Bought parsley by mistake and used some Thai basil instead.]
• 1/3 cup roughly chopped roasted unsalted peanuts
• Line wedges, for serving

Mise en place.  Steak is marinating.  Sauce ingredients stir together until sugar dissolves.

Browning the beef in batches over high heat.  I got away for a pretty long time without setting the fire alarm, but alas, eventually I lost the war.

Used home-grown and fairly mild Hungarian wax pepper here.  Sauteed with shallots until beginning to soften.

Push everything aside and stir garlic mixed with 1 teaspoon oil in center until fragrant.

Cook everything together until sauce is thickened.

The recipe suggests that half the herbs be stirred in and half used as garnish, but as I was only going to eat this one bowl at a time, I just stirred it all in.
Pretty decent stir-fry.

Pork Shoulder Cooked in Green Chiles (TTH)

• 6 large poblano peppers (about 2 pounds)
• 2 pounds tomatillos, husked and washed
• 1 boneless pork shoulder (about 5 pounds), cut into 6 equal pieces
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 large carrots, coarsely chopped
• 2 stalk celery, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon whole cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 cups store-bought low-sodium chicken broth
• Chopped fresh cilantro for garnish [Nope]
• 4 lime wedges for serving [See above]

Mise en place.  Spoiler alert: much of the sheer volume of the dish gets thrown out at the end.

Char the skin on the poblanos.  Do this well because this step is key in peeling the chiles later.  Kind of tedious.  Blais says you can do this in a oven, but does offer directions.

Peel (basically rubbing the skin off with your hands), seed, de-stem and I thought it was worth it to cut them up a bit before throwing in a food processor.

Trying to do an okay job charring the tomatillos.  They at least don't have to be peeled.  All of them were pretty softened.  A couple were even juicy like a tomato.

So Richard Blais doesn't even care if I core the tomatillos?

In a bowl, coarsely chopped.

Browning the hunks of pork.  I'm getting there when it comes to my expertise butchering a whole pork shoulder.

Oh yeah and you dredge them with flour and season them before you throw them in the pot.

Transfer pork to a plate and supposedly drain off extra fat.

Should I not have spent the time trimming the fat on the pork shoulder?

Add onions, celery and pepper along with a little salt and pepper.  Cook until softened.

Add spices and tomato paste and cook until the tomato paste begins to caramelize.

 

Tomatillos and poblanos get thrown back into the mix.

Pour in chicken stock and add the pork pieces, along with any accumulated juices.  Cook until liquid begins to simmer.  Cover throw it into a 325 degree oven until the meat easily shreds with a fork.  A couple hours, you know?

 

This is the part where you get rid of all the vegetables.

A dish too austere for me to even figure out a half decent side dish.  I wound up eating it with that white bread I got for the Swedish meatballs and eventually a nice round of sourdough but that was later.
However, one day it bothered me how long I had had the bread at room temperature and it yet to go bad at all.  This happened at work and a pile of meat doesn't really make for workday lunch.

Though enough with the bad even though I think this dish probably calls for homemade tamales as well (I'll try that sometime, but I've read that it's way more tolerable as a cooperative thing).  It's a beautiful dish if not really the right fit for my lifestyle.

Savory + Aromatic Swedish Meatballs, Kind Of (TTH)

• 5 tablespoons olive oil, plus more as needed
• 1 small onion, minced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
• 1 teaspoon umami paste or anchovy paste
• 2 slices stale white sandwich bread, torn into small pieces
• 3 tablespoons whole milk
• 1 1/2 pounds ground lamb
• 4 ounces pork fatback, finely minced
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill [Though it would work well in this, one tablespoon isn't enough to justify buying a bunch of dill]
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 3 tablespoons dry sherry
• 3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons store-bought low-sodium broth
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum or cornstarch (Missed my golden opportunity to buy xanthan gum for the first time]
• 1 to 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
• Lingonberry jam (from iKEA or elsewhere) for serving [Nope]

Mise en place for the meatballs themselves.  Decidedly more than the number of ingredients in your average Swedish Meatball recipe and with different spices.  Apparently the traditional spices are nutmeg and allspice.  Forget fresh herbs, anchovies, and fatback; even onion and garlic.

Oh, by the way, you shred the white bread into tiny pieces and pour the milk over it.  It's like a panade?

Which seemingly isn't a popular enough usage of the term to have a page on wikipedia.  Interesting.

Cook onion, garlic, and salt until the onion softens.

Add spices and cook for another two minutes.  Add umami paste (Eh, just minced some anchovies even though that's not even the same thing as anchovy paste) and stir until combined.

Let cool.

Mix mixture with lamb and panade with a wooden spoon until roughly combined.

Add herbs and season to taste with salt and pepper.  Overmixing is apparently an issue, but I made sure to season aggressively and yet avoid overdoing it while searing off pieces in a pan.

I did a good job.

Final mise en place.  The meatballs don't exactly stay spherical like that.

One is supposed to sear the meatballs just lightly until they begin to brown, but I wasn't paying as much attention as necessary on the first batch.  Didn't ruin it, but I learned my lesson.

 
Transfer the meatballs to a plate.  Add sherry and deglaze.  Cook until nearly evaporated.
Add meatballs back to the pot along with 3/4 cup of chicken broth.  Simmer until cooked through.
Mix xanthan gum (Damn, I should have totally bought some) with remaining 2 tablespoons chicken stock.  Push meatballs to one side of pan and whisk mixture into bubbling liquid.  Stir the meatballs back in and cook until sauced has thickened.

Season with sherry vinegar (I think it only needed that 1 tablespoon), lemon zest, salt and black pepper and...  It was awesome.  The most complex succulent Swedish meatballs I've ever had though there's not much to compare these to except Stouffer's and one trip to Ikea.  Dill makes so much sense, but it was still totally good without it.

Corned Beef on Rye with Sauce Maria Rosa and Brussels Kraut (TTH)

FOR THE BRINE

• 10 cups water
• 5 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
• 5 tablespoons coarse salt
• 8 garlic cloves
• 12 juniper berries, crushed
• 8 whole cloves
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns, cracked
• 1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon allspice berries, crushed
• 1 bay leaf, crushed
• 3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 beef brisket flat cut, fat cap intact (about 4 pounds)     

Combine 2 cups of water with remaining brine ingredients and bright to a simmer.

Let cool.  Put brisket in heavy-duty gallon-sized resealable bag or large non-reactive container.  Pour brine over and add remaining water.  Refrigerate in bring for at least 12 hours, and up to 3 days.

I managed about 24 hours.

FOR COOKING THE BRISKET

• 1 yellow onion, roughly chopped
• 1 carrot, roughly choppes
• 1 stalk celery, roughly chopped

Place well-rinsed brisket over chopped vegetables and cover with water.  Bring to boil.  cover and simmer until brisket is fork-tender, about 2 hours.

Remove brisket and let cool slightly.  Although it was much easier to cut when it had been sitting in the fridge for a bit.

FOR THE SANWICHES

• 8 thick slices rye bread or pumpernickel-rye swirl
• 1/4 cup Pastrami Mustard
• 1 cup Brussels Kraut
• 8 cornichons, sliced lengthwise
• 1/4 cup Sauce Maria Rosa

PASTRAMI MUSTARD 

• 1 1/2 tablespoons coriander seeds
• 1 1/2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds
• 1 1/2 teaspoons black peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 cup Beer Mustard [No, I don't this I'm making a subcomponent.  Plain dijon I think will be fine here.]

Toast coriander and mustard seeds.

Run them and the peppercorns through a coffee grinder and combine with paprika and mustard.

SAUCE MARIA ROSA

• 2/3 cup Aioli or good-quality store-bought mayonnaise
• 1/3 cup San Marzano Ketchup or store-bought ketchup
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 teaspoon grated lime zest
• 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon Cholula hot sauce
• 3 drops Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Richard Blais' take on Thousand Island dressing is pretty awesome.

BRUSSELS KRAUT

• 1 pound Brussels sprouts, bottoms trimmed
• 1 cup cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon caraway seeds

Sandwich mise en place.

Regarding the Brussels Kraut, they are supposed to be cut in a "chiffonade" and blanched.  I didn't see much point in going through the trouble of blanching so I just skipped that step.

Combine with the vinegar and caraway and refrigerate for at least 2 to 3 hours.

Spread one slice of bread with 1 tablespoon mustard and arrange slices of brisket over.  The brisket wasn't really sliceable at the moment.

 

Top with Brussels Kraut and cornichons.  Spread other slice of bread with the Sauce Maria Rosa.

Really amazing, complex sandwich just like the one I used when I made mortadella.  It didn't take a lot of effort to make a slaw and a couple sauces.  Spread the sandwich around to various friends who all really liked the sandwich.
Eric S even said I should open up a sandwich store.  Ha.

Swiss chard, chickpea, and tamarind stew (Plenty)

• 4 tbsp seedless tamarind pulp [Too lazy to seek this out in some crazy market.  Super 88 if they have any is too much of a trek.]
• 1 lb Swiss chard (stalks and leaves), cut into 3/8-inch slices
• 1 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 2 tsp caraway seeds
• 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to finish
• 1 tsp tomato paste
• one 14-oz can chopped plum tomatoes, with their juices
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 1 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 2 1/2 cups freshly cooked chickpeas (or a 14-oz can, drained)
• salt and black pepper
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 cup Greek yogurt (optional) [Nope]
• generous handful cilatro leaves
• 1 3/4 cups short-grain rice
• 1 1/2 tbsp butter
• 3 cups water

Toasting the coriander seeds.  I'm sure I could've easily just whizzed them in the coffee grinder, but I decided to do what Ottolenghi said and broke out the mortar and pestle.

Mise en place.

Blanching the chard in salted water.

There were some steps in here, but it seems like I figured to only photograph very few of them.  Basically this is a bowl with practically everything in it except for the cilantro and lemon and...

Rice pilaf.  Which strikes me as far more foolproof a way of cooking rice on a stovetop than normal rice.  Not like I do that since I have a rice cooker.

Very good dish.  I only added the juice of half of a lemon since I thought the dish was quite sour enough as is.  I guess I didn't have cilantro this time around.

This is also a weird culinary mash-up since I'm pretty sure they don't use tamarind in the middle east.